


You Can't Hack Nature

by dirtman



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Post-Recall, Pre-Binary, implied PTSD, the only ship is friendship - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-05
Updated: 2017-05-22
Packaged: 2018-10-28 07:46:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10826901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dirtman/pseuds/dirtman
Summary: Sombra has said that anything can be hacked, and anyone. But a botched mission makes her realise that may not be as true as she'd like. Stranded without comms in the german wilderness, she's confronted with an adversary unlike any she's faced before; Nature. So when something finally comes around that she can hack, its a surprise to find herself wondering if she should.





	1. Talon's Best vs. One Old Man

The first few rays of the dawn sun glimmered over the tallest towers of Eichenwalde as birds began to sing. The winds that danced through carried the cold of night, too early to have been dispelled by the daylight. The sky was painted with a myriad of beautiful hues, like the work of some cosmic artist. Sombra was in no mood to appreciate it though, more preoccupied with retreating as far into her coat as she could. She found herself reading the same sections of data she had open again and again, unwilling to draw her hand out of her warm pocket to scroll down. Not that she needed to be reading the information on their mark, she had amassed most of this data herself and had been through it multiple times in the past week. The reading was there to provide a meager distraction from the cold.

“Remind me again why we need three of Talon’s best operatives for one old man?” Sombra asked the dark figure lurking in a shadowy corner of the room.  
“That kind of thinking will get you killed out there. He’s not that much older than me, don’t underestimate him just because he looks like a grandpa.” the echoing voice replied.

Sombra bit back a comment about Reaper behaving more like a troubled teen than an old man. Reinhardt Wilhelm actually looked the part of a jovial old man and old character assessments only seemed to corroborate that. She granted that he was an experienced combatant, but he didn't even have a gun, and Sombra didn’t see how he could take out Widowmaker from a distance.

Speak of the devil…

“We’ve got movement on heat vision. He’s in front of the throne, I don't have a clear shot through the window.” a voice said over the comms.  
“Want us to smoke him out?” Reaper replied, giving his shotguns one last check.  
“No, I’m repositioning, but I need you ready if the target detects my movement. Sombra, be ready to disrupt the target but don’t approach until I say.”  
“Got it Azul, wait for you to pull a Volskaya before carrying the team.” Sombra jested.  
“Sombra…” Reaper rumbled as a warning.  
“Yeah yeah understood, we’ll get into position,” Sombra said, standing up and instantly regretting it as cold air washed over her legs. “Ugh I can’t stand this cold weather, how are you not freezing right now?”  
“Focus on the mission Sombra” said a disembodied voice as Reaper wraithed onwards.

The spectre of a man was so easy to rile up, but to this day Sombra had failed to get the same sort of response from Widowmaker. It might be impossible with all the tampering Talon had done with her mind, but Sombra wasn’t ready to give up just yet. She did love a challenge.

The bridge from the main town to the castle proper was open to the elements, and to prying eyes. Thankfully there was a side entrance to the castle through part of the battlements. Vicious battle followed by thirty years of abandonment had not done the castle any favours, but the heavy stone structure still held strong, providing some insulation against the cold and holding back the wind. Sombra was grateful to be back in what could be considered indoors, the fleeting time she spent in the open was too much already. She had complained to Reaper earlier in the mission, thinking he would share her plight. Gabriel Reyes had, after all, grown up in sunny Los Angeles, not all that different from Dorado’s climate. But Reaper didn’t experience cold the same way that Reyes did, one of the very few things about his condition that Sombra envied.

Sombra activated her thermoptic camouflage as she approached the balcony over the throne, having left a translocator closer to the exit. From her new vantage point she could see their target, kneeling reverently before the armor left on the throne. From this angle she couldn’t see his face, though she could faintly hear him speaking. It was too quiet for her translator to pick up properly, blips of Spanish amongst strings of German. With careful movements she adjusted her settings until the words became mostly comprehensible.

“-would already be with the old team if Brigitte didn’t stop… have to think before I rush in, have to make sure I’m… what Overwatch’s legacy really is, what it was really like… was simpler when it was just the Crusaders. We may have been like knights, but I can’t let myself be a piece in someone else’s game again… suppose we were more like rooks than the little horses… trust Winston, and I do miss them all. I have already told them I would join them again and hope to continue Overwatch’s original purpose but Brigitte is right, I must not let the mistakes of the past occur again.” the translator intermittently spat out. Sombra wasn’t sure if he was talking to the armor or himself or both. She would have refined the audio settings more but the target began to rise from the ground, making the infiltrator alert. Even from this distance she could tell the photos did not do the man justice, he was enormous. He turned to face the old armor, his face finally visible. The grim expression coupled with the slight red puffiness around his eyes contrasted so much with the exuberant man from her files.

“At least, if this fails, I can always come back to y- wait, what is-?” the giant of a man said, his head turning slightly to one of the side alcoves at the exact same moment as a resonant bang echoed throughout the chamber, a barely visible streak crossing the expanse momentarily, ending with a spray of rubble from one of the walls. The large man ducked down, turning to face the source of the bullet, hard light shield raised on ready.

“Brigitte, I am under attack, do you hear me?” he bellowed into his comms, “There is one sniper, maybe more attackers. Yes, I plan on fighting them, no I do not need evac. Ah, Angela! Care to join me in glorious combat?”

Sombra took advantage of his distractedness, stealthily dropping off the balcony into position, rapidly hacking the armor before he could turn to stop her. The massive shield went down, but her adversary reacted quickly, raising his giant hammer to swing at her. Just in time she used the translocator to escape what would have been a devastating blow, though she was now much further from the fight where she was needed. If he was calling in reinforcements then they would need to finish this fast if they were to have a chance at pulling this off.

“There is an airship approaching from the west and I no longer have a clear shot, ground team what is your status?” Widowmaker’s voice came through the comms.  
“I took down his shield, how could you not have gotten that clear shot in then? I’m returning to the fight, Reaper how’s it going in there?”

The only response at first was the crack of shotguns going off, audible both over the comms and through echoing castle halls. Sombra rushed to the sound only to witness Reaper being forced back towards the castle’s main door by the relentless swings of Reinhardt’s hammer. Without his shield, the bigger man’s armor took the brunt of the shotgun pellets, clouds of small dents spread across the front of it, though its wearer showed no sign of slowing down. Sombra drew her SMG and fired into the armor as well, effectively flanking him. That was until the large man turned to her and swung the hammer in an uppercut motion. This confused Sombra for a moment as she was still out of his reach, right until a flash of fiery orange streaked towards her. Though not that fast, at this distance she didn’t have time to simply duck out of the way, so she desperately tossed her translocator out of the path and using it as it arced through the air, firing once more before she hit the ground and managing to hit her target before he brought his shield up again. Now closer to Reaper they lost the flanking advantage they would have had against the shield. However, it allowed her a moment of respite to activate the thermoptic camo again, moving to a more favourable position while the target couldn’t strike at her with that ludicrously big hammer.

Another crack of sniper fire echoed through the halls, Sombra turning to see Widowmaker grapple to one of the balconies further within the castle to keep them in her sights. She must have come through the window she was initially shooting through, Sombra thought, before her attention returning to the fight at hand as the large armoured man seemed to fly across towards Reaper like a rocket. Before he could wraith away, Reaper was pushed not into the great wooden doors behind him, but through them, sending a shower of splinters and debris flying and effectively moving the fight outside, once again blocking Widowmaker’s line of sight. Whether that was Reinhardt’s plan or a stroke of luck, Sombra could not tell.

“Any time you two want to help out you’re welcome to.” Reaper’s voice echoed over the comms, sounding winded and airy as he wraithed away from the hammer swings once more. Despite his efforts being ineffective, Reinhardt still swung his hammer through the smoke as it swiftly rushed away.

Sombra felt the camo wear off, lamenting its short duration. At the range she was at her SMG wouldn’t do much good. Just past the tops of the castle she saw the looming mass of a dropship drawing near. Time was nearly up, it was now or never. She ran towards her adversary, into the open of the main bridge. Despite the heat of battle and the sun rising further into the sky, the wind was still felt like it pierced straight through her clothes. Bracing herself against the discomfort, she took advantage of the distraction that Reaper’s wraith form offered. Once in range, she started hacking, hoping to disable Reinhardt long enough for Reaper and Widowmaker to take over. Her fingers buzzed as she rushed through the protocols, the bizarre feeling snapping away as she finished. Now if she could throw the translocator far enough…

Sharp heavy pain bloomed from her hand and she attempted to skid the device past Reinhardt. The translocator was flung out of her grip as delicate bones shattered, though she did not have time to see where it landed. As a last ditch effort she tried to use the thermoptic camo, but was disrupted by another blow by the hammer, this time striking further up her arm. Pain and adrenaline overriding her thoughts, she looked for any escape from the heavy blows coming at her. An impulse that could have been simply muscle memory emerged from the panic, though not in time to save her entirely from the backswing. The flash of pain was accompanied by a flash of light, followed by her awareness of balance disappearing. For a moment Sombra was unable to make sense of what she saw, too much sky and the shape of the buildings all wrong, fearing her translocator had been damaged when struck and had messed with her spacial awareness. Then she realised what she was seeing, and why the wind was suddenly howling while her gut lurched. The translocator had worked fine, but it had also been sent flying far off the edge of the bridge.

The Overwatch ship hovering above with its cargo bay doors open like a ravenous maw was the last thing Sombra saw before crashing through the canopy below.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally posted this! Chapter 2 is already done but i'll hold out on posting it until i've done some of chapter 3. The characters other than Somba won't be playing any major roles in this fic, though i may write a short fic about Reinhardt's reasons for being in Eichenwalde there and then.  
> I will also address Binary in the epilogue, however the bulk of this story is set before then. I started writing this before Binary came out so took some time to rework it to fit updated canon.  
> Let me know what you think and how I can improve, criticism is welcome!
> 
> Edit: Fixed some formatting, should be easier to read


	2. Nature, It's All Over Me

_The buzzing sensation along her scalp was accompanied by little shocks of pain as the cheap electric razor snagged the occasional hair. Try as she might, the girl sitting in the makeshift barbers seat couldn’t help but occasionally flinch in response to the sensation._

_“If you can’t deal with shaving your head how are you going to cope when we start sticking all this tech in you?” a smooth voice jested from behind her, out of sight._  
_“Your tech and all the gear to fit it is all quality, I checked. Your razor looks like you’ve never cleaned it since the day you bought it from the bargain bin and it feels like it too.” she spat in response, earning her a chuckle._  
_“What can I say, I only really use it for people loco enough for the full procedure, and there aren’t that many of you.”_

_The girl was about to respond when some of her hair fell across her face and into her mouth, making her splutter instead._

_“This is what happens when you complain about my service. It’s karma, cariña.”_

_The girl pulled the hair from her mouth, and was confused for a moment by the texture. It didn’t feel like hair, although she couldn’t place what the strange sensation was._

_“You’re lucky I don’t trust anyone else to do this, and that I like you.” she responded once her mouth was clear. A clear laugh responded, and once again the buzzing started across the left side of her head, sharp pain accompanying it like touching an open circuit._

_No… that wasn’t how it felt at the time. It had been uncomfortable but not so… electrifying._

_She tried to turn around to face the person behind her and- ___

__“Mierda!” Sombra shouted as she rolled onto her arm. It took a few moments of blinking to see more than hazy greens and earthy tones. She tried to process her surroundings, though she had a headache worse than those she gots right after her implants got in. There were leaves everywhere, even all over her, one stuck to her chin with her own drool (gross she thought, though too exhausted to brush it off). Soft light filtered through even more leaves above her, though these ones were stuck to their trees rather than her person. A forest? Why was she in a forest?_ _

__Memories of the botched mission started to filter through as the haze of unconsciousness cleared and pain started to flare up in her left arm and right leg. She tried to push herself up using her good limbs, managing to sit upright though a wave of dizziness washed over her. She looked over at her arm and while the strike to her forearm felt awful, the sight of unnatural angles and swelling in her hand was worse. Seeing the damage so clearly made the pain that much worse. She drew in a sharp breath, almost like a hiss, unable to keep looking at her mangled hand. Hopefully someone from Talon could give her a good slathering of nanites to patch it up when she got back._ _

__How was she going to get back though? Initially she assumed they’d send in a ship for evac, but shouldn’t it be here by now? How long had she been out? The rush of thoughts made her headache worse. She rubbed the front of her head with her good hand, but feel a strange and somewhat painful sensation from her shaved scalp. She had just been dreaming about when she had first…_ _

__Tentatively she reached around and lightly traced over her implants. A harsh zap struck her fingers and coursed along her scalp. The shock made her yelp, but she felt enough of the solid parts of it to infer that part of her implants had been damaged, a loose piece of metal or wire sticking out. That complicated things for sure._ _

__Attempting to use any of her tech right now would be foolish… who knows what could happen, after all there were parts of it wired into her nervous system. The temptation was there though, she was confident with electronics. Everything else around her, all this nature, was unfamiliar and discomforting. She could navigate past the firewalls of the top organisations in the world with her cybernetics and other gear. What was she supposed to do with wet leaves?_ _

__Still, she had other gear. Her earbud for the comms system wasn’t there. Perhaps it had fallen out somewhere nearby, if she could get it and if the others were close enough, maybe she could call in for assistance. She rummaged through the short plants that covered the forest floor, reaching as far as she could without it hurting too much, but could find nothing. The canopy made the sunlight dimmer but there was still ample light to inspect her surroundings, so she was fairly confident that she hadn’t missed it. Now that she thought about it, it hadn’t been this bright during the mission, even under the open sky. It must have been hours since then. The wretched feeling of dry mouth supported that line of thought._ _

__If it had been that long, would the other two Talon operatives even be nearby anymore? Chances are when the big guy got his reinforcements Talon would be forced to retreat. Alone he was menacing enough, with one operative down and more hostiles joining him there would be little hope of success. Which meant they either got evac or…_ _

__No, Talon wouldn’t stick around for her sorry hide. They might send recon once Eichenwalde was clear of Overwatch presence, but for now she was on her own._ _

__So now she was faced with two options. Either get up and try to make her own way out of this hellscape of greenery and fresh air (not likely given her injuries and the distance between Eichenwalde and the nearest inhabited settlement) or try to establish a satellite connection through her cybernetics (which might fry her brain). The choice seemed pretty clear._ _

__Tentatively moving the fingers of her left hand which was supported by her right, she began the painstaking process of connecting to any satellite or frequency that she could reach. A faint buzz arced across her scalp but wasn’t even a discomfort compared to the effort of moving her fingers, at least two of which had broken bones. Her brain wasn’t fried, which was a relief, and everything seemed to be working albeit slower than usual. She managed to bring up the relevant holoscreen, and waited for it to scan for available connections. After about five minutes (longer than it had any right to take) the screen finally showed a result.__

__> HARDWARE ERROR!  
>unable to retrieve results due to lack of required communications hardware_ _

__  
Sombra stared at the message on the screen in silence, reading it over and over, before letting out a frustrated scream, dispersing the offending image with an overly aggressive wave of her good hand. As if everything that happened today wasn’t bad enough. <

So now she was left with only the other option. Before getting up, she inspected the pained area of her right leg. She couldn’t see what it was like under her leggings, and it was still cold enough that she was not going to take them off just to see, but she could see some swelling in the pained area. It was by far the most mild of the injuries inflicted by that gargantuan hammer, but still bad enough that standing would definitely be unpleasant at best.

No, she could put that off for a bit. While she was still on the ground she had less chances of falling over, better to do a system diagnostic now. Taking a moment to breathe and stabilise herself she brought up a holoscreen again. Scrolling through readouts gave her a bleak but manageable prognosis. Main processing was functioning at 47% of normal efficiency. Aside from general comms, all other hardware was accounted for, although several pieces were showing warning signs. Her thermoptic camo appeared to periodically disconnect from the main cybernetic controls, probably a loose wire in the independent part that operated it. It was a prototype that she had modified only to the extent that she could integrate it into her own systems, the architech who made it probably didn’t expect it to be used out in the field. Once she got back somewhere civilised she would finally reverse engineer it and come up with something sturdier, she didn’t have to worry about breaking it now; it was already somewhat busted. 

Her translocator wasn’t with her. Part of her, the petty part, thought good riddance. It was that thing that got her into this mess. But then she started thinking rationally again. The translocator was a tool, she was the one who used it. Maybe if she found it she could use it to help her travel somewhere more habitable. It had been too long to use it now, but it can’t have travelled far, she used it as she fell. 

__Finally, with no other options that would help her, Sombra tried to stand up. Slowly, she planted the foot of her good leg on the solid ground. Stabilising with her good arm and her other leg, she pushed up. With much effort she got upright quickly, though stumbled as she righted herself. She swayed, losing her sight to dizziness for a moment. But she was standing and could walk._ _

__From where she was she could see the cliffside that led up to Eichenwalde. She limped towards it, scanning the undergrowth for her translocator as she went. She almost missed it tucked under a fern, the glint of purple the only distinctive feature at a distance. Pushing through the pain in her leg she hobbled over to scoop it up. It was covered with dirt and mud, but other than that was intact. Sombra had thought it would have been damaged by the hammerstrike, but even a quick software check revealed nothing wrong. What would the architech who made her camouflage think about being outdone by a gorilla? Not that either scientist knew she had their tech._ _

__With translocator in hand and Eichenwalde in sight, she formulated a plan. Not a very complicated or thought out plan, but it was something._ _

__Two hours later her the only outcome of her plan was a tired arm and added frustration at gravity. It brought her down here and was now stopping her from tossing the translocator back up. She finally gave up after countless attempts, conceding that walking to Stuttgart may be her best hope.__

__***_ _

__  
Sombra was as fond of music as any other person, and yet no song could compare to the sound she heard now. Running water. Walking for so long without a drink had left her parched and with a horrible headache. Her body’s pains were momentarily forgotten as she stumbled faster to sunlit gaps between trees, breaking past the treeline and onto smooth pebbles. A small but clear stream stretched before her, glimmering in the sunlight. She skidded across the banks sending pebbles flying as she reached the water's edge. She almost dipped both hands into the water but stopped at the sight of her left hand’s wires exposed. Probably best not to submerge it. Instead she used only her right to scoop water to her mouth.

__Sombra had been the sort of person to go for coffee or soda over plain water. Now however, no soda was as sweet or coffee as invigorating as this unfiltered water. She splashed it over her face in her haste to drink more, drenching the hair that hung over her shoulder. She didn’t care. The water pushed all the discomforts from her mind._ _

__After having sated her thirst, Sombra sat back and took a moment to breathe. Laughter escaped her lips as she remembered a mission in Hollywood. She and Reaper had been undercover, investigating a film studio. He had his hood up and a ton of special effects makeup to disguise his condition, but it was one of the few times he went out without the mask. It gave her full view of his disgusted reaction as she pointed out the price of bottled water._ _

__“Dios mio, Gabe, I thought you were exaggerating when you talked about SoCal. At $600 a bottle that water had better be full of stimulants or something.”_ _

__Having this water now was worth more than even that exorbitant fee, and yet with a sort of happy irony it was free. With that amusing thought in mind and her thirst sated she was more content in that moment than she had been since the start of the mission.  
The moment passed, however, and her pains flared up again, as well as hunger. Dehydration killed faster than a lack of food,but she would need a steady supply of both to reach Stuttgart. Even if she had a way to contact a take out place she doubted any would deliver to german wilderness. Now that she thought about it, she couldn’t remember the last time she prepared a meal herself. Money was easy to come by and nearly everyone did delivery these days, she rarely even went out to eat unless dragged out by someone._ _

__Looking around her she saw a few bushes bearing fruit, but even she knew that jamming unknown berries in her mouth was likely to kill her. On the other side of the stream though was a small yellow bird. Making a fire couldn’t be that hard, and her camo would give her an advantage, so she could catch it rather than shoot it. Her smg probably wouldn’t leave enough meat on it, plus the risk of lead poisoning. Slowly she moved across the shallow stream, not directly towards the bird but far enough away that she wouldn’t startle it. The bird paid no attention to her, thoroughly focused on pecking some twigs. Once out of the water Sombra activated her camo and snuck over the gravel towards it as best as she could. The sound of pebbles grinding against each other was jarring to Sombra but the bird was unfazed, right up until her camo flickered off as she came within grabbing distance. With a yelp Sombra leapt into action but the bird was faster. A flash of yellow was all she saw before landing roughly onto the branches the bird had been picking at. Pain flared in her hand and leg from the impact, though the embarrassment at her ineptitude was just as bad. Thankfully no one was there to see that._ _

__No, someone did see and was now chirping at her… angrily? The little yellow bird sat in a branch above her. Sombra was reminded of her aunts chewing out her cousins as a child, that same vocal displeasure present. It was even flapping its wings in and out to emphasise its tweeting. So much for hunting her dinner, all she seemed to do was piss it off. She was tempted to shoot the bird anyway out of spite._ _

__Having finished its outburst the bird fluffed up a bit before taking off into the trees._ _

__“Yeah fuck you too you dumb pigeon!” Sombra yelled at it as it went. Day one and she was already yelling at animals. Hopefully she got out of here before she went completely off the rails._ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The title of this chapter is a reference to the 2005 Dreamworks Film "Madagascar"  
> Also this was a good reminder that I need to learn how to write html and css properly because rn I can't


	3. A Little Bird Told Me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Minor CW for mention of animal death and gore and implied tobacco use. If you want to skip the former just skip the first paragraph.

The sun was low in the sky now, and with the fading light the chill in the air returned. The walking helped, keeping Sombra somewhat warmer, but exhaustion and hunger were taking their toll. Eventually she would need to rest, but the more she rested the longer it would take for her to reach civilisation, and the longer it would be without food. She hadn’t seen anything larger than a squirrel to hunt down, not that she hadn’t tried. Using her SMG on one of the creatures left her with a bloody mess of fur and gore that she hadn’t the slightest idea what to do with. Cooking aside, the sight of it brought a bout of nausea upon her.

As the sky darkened Sombra decided to attempt a fire. She had found a small hollow in the roots of a large tree, just deep enough to squeeze into. A bundle of sticks now rested before it, with a ring of rocks around that. Sombra had no idea what the rocks were for but that’s what campfires looked like in movies and games. She had two smaller ones in her hands now, furiously striking them together trying to make a spark. So far she had little success, only managing to make a couple of sparks that didn’t catch on the wood to produce a flame.

It had been years, no, decades since Sombra had felt so helpless. Hungry with no food, no light, no one to help her. It was all too similar to…

No. It wasn’t anything like that. It was quiet here, no buildings, no gunfire. Trees with plenty of space between them, she had her gun, she had her tech. Most of it. Enough to get by. Nothing out here was trying to hunt her down.

In an effort to shake off negative thoughts she brought up her holo screen to dig through some of her saved files. Any distraction would be welcome right about now. The light from it was an added bonus. She ended up reading files on Eichenwalde. Extensive strategic notes, adequate recent history of the region dating to the omnic crisis, nothing about surviving in the woods. As she gestured with her hand to backtrack to the index a sharp pain rushed through. The exposed wiring on her left hand flashed with sparks as she moved it from muscle memory, having momentarily forgotten her injury.

Wait. Sparks.

Cautiously, she held the back of her hand to the branch pile, brushing it against the closest one. With a slight flex of her fingers and a horrible zapping pain she got it to spark up against the wood. It took a few seconds and gritting her teeth through the discomfort, but eventually the branch started to smoulder. It wasn’t a fire, but it was starting to burn, and that was better than nothing. Maybe she could spread it around a bit, like using one candle of a birthday cake to light the others. She took a twig and held it to the smouldering section, though it wasn’t having as much effect as she would have liked, certainly not enough to spread the fire around before morning. 

Cold and exhausted, she huddled close to the meager warmth and was soon drifting off to sleep. As her eyes fell shut she regretted not having a lighter on her. If only she hadn’t quit that habit when she left Los Muertos.

***

Come morning Sombra woke to cheery birdsong and an aching back. Sleeping curled up on the forest floor was probably not recommended by any chiropractor ever. She looked to her ‘campfire’ which looked mostly the same as it had last night, only now one branch was noticably scorched. It must have died out not long after Sombra fell asleep.

With a sigh Sombra stood up. Her leg, while still sore, was nowhere near as bad as it was yesterday. She was contemplating that maybe she would make more ground today when her stomach produced an insistent rumble. Well, so much for making better time. The birds chirping overhead sounded like mocking laughter, nature’s avatar for expressing mirth at her suffering. She couldn’t help but think of roast chicken. One of the birds was brazen enough to land on a rock on the other side of her campfire and watch her with its beady little eyes. It was one of the yellow ones like she had seen yesterday. Sombra never did like yellow.

“What are you looking at, pendejo?” she asked it, glowering as menacingly as she could. The bird must have gotten the idea that it wasn’t welcome as it took off. Sombra sighed, she should have tried to catch it but after the squirrel incident she wasn’t feeling too keen on hunting, even though these yellow birds pissed her off. Instead she decided to start walking towards Stuttgart.

Which reminded her. Where was Stuttgart? She had been using Eichenwalde as reference but that was out of sight now. Panic set in as Sombra realised she may be completely lost with no way of finding her bearings. _Think logically, calm down, where is Stuttgart? West of Eichenwalde. Which way is West? No fucking clue I don’t have a compass._

Wait. She didn’t need a compass. The sun rose in the East and set in the West. It was morning so the sun would be in the East. Which meant she should go in the opposite direction.

“You thought you could hide information from me, did you? I got it figured out.” Sombra said to the trees, not entirely sure who she was addressing. First birds, now nature maybe? She wasn’t that lonely. Just used to having someone else to talk to, even if they responded just as little most of the time. She wondered what Reaper and Widowmaker were doing right now. Would they be worried about her? Widow probably wouldn’t be, but Gabe was an uncertainty. She liked to think that he was at least fond of her as a colleague if not as an actual friend. Her relationship with those two was complicated to say the least, but she did genuinely like them both. Hopefully those feelings were mutual and they were trying to find her now.

As she walked she felt a sharp puff of wind brush by her. The yellow bird from before (maybe the same one from the stream?) darted past and landed in front of her.

“Come here to mock me? Wait what’s that you have?” Sombra asked as she noticed the bird held something in its beak. The creature dropped the small red object before Sombra, looking up at her expectantly. Upon closer inspection the object turned out to be a small cluster of berries.  
“For me?” Sombra asked, before remembering that birds couldn’t understand human talk. Except some parrots, but why would a wild bird understand any words. Also wouldn’t it know German if it knew any language?

Breaking from that train of thought, she reached forwards and took the berries in her fingers. They looked like raspberries, and the bird had carried them in its mouth without being poisoned. Though they had been in a bird’s mouth. As she debated whether it was safe to eat the berries, her stomach once again groaned. Maybe she shouldn’t look a gift bird in the mouth. She tentatively chewed a piece off one berry as a test. It was raspberry. She shoved the other few berries in her mouth, divided between savouring the flavour and getting as much food into her at once. She was almost too distracted to notice the bird flit away from her, the flash of bright yellow drawing her attention.

“Wait! Is there more? Where did you get these?” Sombra called out to it, before realising that the bird wasn’t abandoning her, and had just flown further onwards, turning back to look at her and chirrup intently. Did the bird want her to follow it? It seemed to be heading West at least. Lost in the German wilds following a seemingly intelligent animal in search of food, it sounded like something out of a fairy tale. Sombra chuckled to herself as she followed the bird. She never liked fairy tales as a child.

***

***

“I am so glad I didn’t catch and eat you before, pájarito.” was Sombra’s response to the sight before her. Her feathered guide had led her to a small clearing lined with raspberry bushes. They sprawled over fallen logs, heavy with fruit. Sombra wasted no time plucking them off by the handful and eating them as fast as she could chew. Once she ate enough that she felt somewhat satisfied, she sat down to harvest some for later, hoping they wouldn’t get too squashed in her pocket. The little bird came down to sit next to her and peck at a berry of its own.

Free from the pressing concerns regarding food, Sombra took a moment to relax. It was still fairly early in the day, and she should keep moving, but now she wasn’t as desperate to move as quickly as possible. Sure there was no guarantee of food and water later on, but there was at least something she could recognise and eat that grew in these forests. The juice of the fruit helped parch her dry throat so even if it was a while before she came across another stream she should be ok.

As Sombra ran her hands through the raspberry bush beside her she felt something solid beneath her fingers, flatter than a branch. Pushing the leaves aside she saw what looked like a rusted sheet of metal, rivets spaced evenly across it. What something like this was doing in the wilderness Sombra had no idea, but her curiosity was piqued. She had to snap one of the branches aside to get a better look. Turns out it wasn’t a sheet but part of a chassis for some kind of heavy machinery. The only defining part of it was text printed on it. E54. Why was that so familiar?

The chassis was too heavy and set into the earth to lift, and it didn’t look like there was much other than this one scrap. Sombra doubted that there was anything she could use of it, especially considering her lack of tools, but it was interesting to know that there was some technology here.

Sombra was distracted from her thoughts by the bird tapping its beak against the metal, producing a clear tone. It seemed just as curious as her.

“That’s a nice beat you’re doing there.” Sombra commented with a smirk, to which the bird responded with a friendly chirrup. It then flew up to a low hanging tree branch and chirruped again. Sombra recognised its motions as those it had used before when it wanted her to follow.

“Yeah I’m going this way anyway, might as well travel together.” Sombra said, content to follow the bird for now. They made good pace, and just when Sombra started to get bored the bird whistled a short tune. By afternoon Sombra was singing along, from nursery rhymes to trying to sing some of Lucio’s work, despite the fact that it was not the sort of music meant to be sung. The bird enjoyed it all regardless. Having gone through her repertoire and wanting to give her voice a break, Sombra fell into comfortable silence. A nagging thought bugged at her as she walked. E54. She was sure she knew that from somewhere, but couldn’t recall exactly what it was. Normally it would be easy enough to look it up on the internet, but if that was an option she wouldn’t be here. Maybe there was something in her saved files. She opened up her holo screen to begin the search, but was interrupted by a shrill tweet of alarm, followed by her balance almost giving out. Her screen disappeared as she flailed to latch onto something, grabbing a nearby tree to stop her from falling down a ledge she had almost stepped off of. Her heart was racing from the shock, though it wouldn’t have been that bad a fall. Her travelling companion flapped down and landed on her outstretched arm, its calls sounding almost like it was berating her.

“Thanks for the warning pájarito. Um, I might need to move my arm, do you want to stay there or?” Sombra said, having found her balance once more. The bird took off again, leading towards an embankment that led safely down to below the ledge, where a tiny stream trickled by. From below Sombra could see that the ledge was held together by tree roots, hanging over the bank of the stream. Sheltered and near water, Sombra decided to set up camp here. Setting up camp would mostly be more poor attempts at making a fire, but there wasn’t much else she could do. She started collecting branches for the fire, having to walk back up away from the stream. The wet wood probably wouldn’t do well for a fire.

As she went about collecting branches, the bird watched, though seemed irate at the fact they weren’t moving onwards. It would occasionally bring a twig down to the pile, but flew off after a while. When Sombra searched the trees and saw no hint of it she felt sad, and then surprised at that sadness. It was a wild bird after all, though it acted quite tame. It probably had its own bird life to get back to or something. Still, it was nice to have a travelling companion for a while.

Come twilight, Sombra was once again trying to light a fire, her hand sparking unpleasantly. Who knows what sort of damage was being done to her every time she did this, but Sombra did not want to put up with the cold. If only she still had that old lighter…

A memory from many years ago came to mind. Being young around other young people, displaced by disaster and rebellious by nature. _“You can’t use any paper to roll a cigarette, it all burns differently.”_ Sombra didn’t even remember who told her that, but the thought of things burning differently gave her an idea. Night approached, so she gathered as many dry leaves as she could before it would be too dark to find her footing. Pushing them in around the branches she set off the sparks once more with a much better result. She cried out in victory, pumping her good fist into the air. It felt almost like when she had cracked her first firewall as a kid.

Ha, firewall. Fire. Sombra thought to herself. It was a ridiculous thought that couldn’t even be called a joke, but Sombra found amusement in it regardless. She watched as the fire started to catch on the bigger branches, heat radiating out as it grew. The light of it extended out into the night, though the oppressive darkness was still a stone’s throw away. Sombra hoped the light of the fire wouldn’t attract any wildlife. She had only seen small critters so far, but not being able to see what was out there made everything that much more terrifying. She was fairly certain that Germany had bears. She brought up her files on Eichenwalde again just in case they mentioned bears.

_Snap._

Before she could start reading, the sound interrupted her. Paralyzed with fear, holo screen still up, she peered into the darkness. The sound came from across the stream, though she couldn’t pinpoint exactly where. Slowly her hand moved down to her gun. If it was something small the gun would scare it off, and if it was a bear she should be able to take it down. How tough was a bear though? Her knuckles gripped the handle of the gun tightly, index finger propped against the trigger guard. She stayed like that for what felt like hours, though was probably only a few minutes. The silence was almost unbearable, not knowing what was there or even where it was. Sombra didn’t know if she wanted any sound to break the tension, or to hope that the silence didn’t end and nothing came to get her. Then again, it wasn’t like she had a say in the situation.

_Whiiiiiiir crunch._

Instinct took over and Sombra aimed in the direction of the sound, opening fire in a spray in the hopes of hitting anything. Her view was obstructed by both her holo screen and the darkness beyond. At that moment as her body acted, two thoughts ran through her mind. The first was that bears did not make such mechanical noises.

A red light hovered in the darkness like a malicious reflection of her fire’s light. More clunks and whirs sounded as it moved. Sombra knew what it was, worse than a bear, she had to run before it was too late. Nothing nature had thrown at her could compare to the threat she faced now, she had to run. Praying her camo worked she activated it and sprinted blindly into the night. She could feel her heartbeat racing though couldn’t hear it over the sound of machine gun fire.

The second thought she had was that E54 was right in front of her when she opened fire. Right there on the holo screen, and right there in the darkness beyond.

SST Laboratories Siege Automaton E54. Bastion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 3 is done! We finally meet Bastion! Sort of.  
> I have been writing this in short chapters so far, and probably could have condensed 2 and 3 into one chapter. That being said though, Chapter 4 looks like it's going to be the longest yet.  
> The artwork in this chapter is done by myself, I don't know if I'll do any full on paintings like this for later chapters but I may throw in some more simple drawings, let me know if you'd like that or not.


	4. Pathway Through The Maze

_“You still have nightmares, don’t you?” asked the woman in the crisp suit. She was all sweet smiles that didn’t reach the eyes, her demeanor clinical. The girl was just a task to be dealt with, one of many such tasks this woman had to deal with. A case file among cabinets full of files just like hers._

_“We can only help you if you open up to us about your problems.” the woman continued. What bullshit. The girl knew the system, knew how ineffective it was. The best way to help her was to get out of the system._

_“I understand that talking about it can be hard. Why don’t we start with your late night excursions?”_

_That got the girl’s attention. She thought no one had noticed that. No, it didn’t matter, she had been caught, she had to deal with the consequences._

_“Am I in trouble?” she asked tentatively, sounding as meek as she could._

_“Señor Martello isn’t pleased, but I’d rather know why you’re sneaking out than punish you for it.”_

_The girl thought about the empty office building she had claimed a room of. Only three blocks from the Young Crisis Victim Housing Complex. The computer pieces that she salvaged and put together. The stash of money slowly amassing inside an old water cooler. The price people were willing to pay for what she was finding._

_The woman couldn’t find out about that. A lie, mixed with truth to make it more believable.  
“I am still having nightmares. Light helps, but I can’t turn anything on with all the other kids sleeping. So I go to where the streetlights are till I calm down and get tired enough to go back.” she said._

_“See, was that so hard? You should have just come to us, we can help you. I can start you on a low dosage of melatonin tonight and we can go from there. We can’t have you going outside, it’s dangerous at night.” the woman said with a relieved smile._

_The girl smiled back at her, pretending to be relieved. She would have to find out how she was caught, wouldn’t do to have loose ends like that. The woman finished writing out a script and handed it to the girl, along with additional instructions._

_“Take the script to the dispensary and hand this note to Señor Martello so he knows how to help you. Now, why don’t you tell the next child to come in on your way out?”_

_The girl said her thanks and took the slips of paper with her as she left. The boy outside was snivelling as he stared at his toes._

_“Doc’s waiting for you Luis.” she said to him, sneering at the sight of snot dripping from his face. She didn’t have time for this. As she walked away she considered tossing the papers into the wastebin. Her hand hesitated over the bin. Might be worth keeping. It was hard to sleep when her dreams were full of machine gun fire._

Sombra had run for hours, her legs and lungs burned. She had tripped and stumbled and gotten back up again countless times. Finally as the first rays of dawn streaked through the dark looming trees did she stop. Crashing to her knees she took a deep breath. Or tried to. Her laboured breathing was overtaken by choking sobs. She held herself tight and tried to get her thoughts in order but fear and exhaustion held control over her. Hours later she would wake curled up on the forest floor as the midday sun hung overhead.

Sombra stretched with a wince, her body was stiff and aching. Half a day wasted. She had to move, who knows how off track she had gotten last night. She quickly did a check of her equipment. SMG loaded, translocator clipped to her belt, camo ready. Comms still offline. Berries squashed but edible. Tasted ok, though it was mush.

She looked to the sky, working out which way to go. As soon as she set off however a familiar flicker of yellow appeared. The bird from before sat in a branch above her watching curiously.

“You running from that thing too? Good thing you didn’t stick around I guess. That or you knew it was there. Should have followed you hey.” Sombra said to the bird who whistled in response. It fluttered its wings and took the lead again. Sombra was pretty sure birds weren’t supposed to be this smart. She wasn’t overly superstitious, but she knew that denying the “impossible” was foolish. She had one colleague who was blue and another that could turn into smoke. Could be genetic modification for all she knew.

As she followed the bird she recognised the stream she had camped by last night. They must be further from the campsite itself as she couldn’t see it. Her grip on the SMG tightened anyway. The forest was well lit now at least.

Today there was no singing as she walked. The silence was full of uncomfortable thoughts. She was disappointed in herself for reacting as she did last night. She had taken down Bastions before, she had a code prepared to shut one down saved in her cybernetic drive and memorised in her head. It had been years since she had panicked like that in a combat situation. Was being in the wild that much of a difference? For years she had felt in control, even in life or death situations. But not here. Here she didn’t feel like notorious hacker extraordinaire Sombra. She was the scared little girl surviving in a harsh unforgiving world. She hated that feeling.

There had also been the fact that she hadn’t been expecting to run into an active Bastion out here. Sure she had seen plenty of husks around Eichenwalde but they were rusted beyond repair and in multiple pieces. Some of the people she had gone against in the past restored the war machines for their own purposes, but that didn’t seem like Overwatch’s modus operandi. Could it have survived since the crisis? The weather should have done it in, although the forest offered some protection…

Sombra’s attention was brought back into the moment as she realised her travelling companion was out of sight.

“Pájarito? Where did you go?” she called out but there was no response. She pushed through the tall bushes in her way with much effort, and finally stumbled into a clearing. The bird flew down to greet her, flapping in front of her face before going onwards.

“Don’t fly ahead without me li-” Sombra started before she saw where the bird landed.

Perhaps it was her time spent on introspection that gave her confidence now. Perhaps it was just the light of day. What mattered was that this time Sombra didn’t flee.

Thermoptic camo up, sprint to target, bring up left hand and the right hack routine, commence hack.

>execute /nerfB73

Sensations rushed through the connection to her cerebral matrix. While some were the usual ones she got from a hack, there was some feedback that stood out. Abnormal. Still, the Bastion unit sagged and emitted a dull whine. Deactivated, for now.

Sombra flopped onto the grass and sighed. The whole ordeal had probably lasted a few seconds and yet it had left her drained. Those stressful moments took their toll, but she was safe for now. She looked at the husk of titanium alloy to make sure. Limbs and head limp though still standing. The little yellow bird sat on its head, bent down and tapping at the visual sensory screen that was no longer illuminated. It chirped frantically between pecks, before turning to Sombra. It flew towards her, and Sombra put her hand out for it to perch on, but little did she expect the bird to twist in the air and go for her head, pulling at her hair and tweeting angrily.

“Hey what the hell? Stop it you stupid chicken why are you attacking me? I should be angry with you, you lead me to the killing machine!” Sombra yelled as she tried to protect her head.

Wait. The bird had led her to the Bastion, and not just today but yesterday as well. Was this some sort of trap? Then why had the bird led her to food? She couldn’t figure this out while under aerial assault. Finally standing up while also trying to shield herself with her arms, she made her way over to the Bastion unit. She was no junker but maybe some of the components could help her get out of here. Though if she were to take apart this thing she’d have to get rid of the bird. What she could do for now is get an idea of its software and how to permanently dismantle it. The E54s must be slightly different to the B73s, that’s why the feedback had been strange. She put her left hand out again just long enough to run a quick system scan, all while the bird continued to harass her.

Distracted as she was by the bird, she didn’t realise that the notifications in her cybernetics weren’t just scan results, but warnings that her hack had been bypassed. What she did notice however was the Bastion jerk forward all of a sudden, released from the bonds of the intrusive code. Sombra panicked. The hack should have lasted longer. She needed to leave, without surprise as an advantage she probably wouldn’t be able to hack it again. Unclipping her translocator she flung it into the trees and then activated it. The familiar tugging feel in her gut wrenched her to it and she dropped down into the cover of the trees, hoping she could use her camo again soon enough to get away unnoticed. As she crouched in the undergrowth praying she remained unseen, she watched as her ‘travelling companion’ landed on the Bastion’s hand. The Bastion held its hand up for it, and seemed to be examining it, it’s sensory screen an unfamiliar bright blue.

***

_Anything can be hacked… and anyone._

It was when she was with Los Muertos that she had added that last part of her catchphrase. There were those she worked with at the time who would lump omnics in with the first category. Things, bots, not real people. Not that there weren’t omnic members of the gang, simply individual members had differences of opinion, to put it lightly. It was with Los Muertos when she first hacked an omnic. She had made the mistake of assuming the code would be similar enough to programs she had encountered already. What she did not expect was the constantly shifting nature of a true AI. It took months to decipher even a part of one omnics personality matrix, and even then that couldn’t be applied to all other omnics she would encounter. It was after those months of gruelling away at code and logic that she realised her way of hacking was ineffective. She had a different way that would work better. Talking to the target.

So it came to be that Sombra realised that omnics fit into the second category. Just like humans were fickle and ever changing, omnics too mimicked that chaos. And yet all people, flesh or metal, were all predictable when you knew how to recognise the patterns. The way they talked, the little body language cues that not even they noticed, where they looked when you asked them certain things. She hadn’t bothered with omnic personality matrixes in years. So it took her a while to recognise the patchy strings of code returned to her by her scan of the E54 unit’s system.

Even once she recognised it for what it was, Sombra was still confused as to why it was there. Sure, Bastion units had been an omnic force during the Crisis, but they were essentially machines repurposed for the God AIs purposes. They weren’t made in the omniums, they weren’t even from the same company. Bastions were SST tech, not Omnica. And even then, Omnica wasn’t even responsible for the complexity of the omnics’ core code. Sure they planted the seed, but omnics grew from their own experiences and design. That was the beautiful thing about AIs, they learned. While a Bastion unit had basic combat improv, it shouldn’t be able to develop like this, and even if it could it wouldn’t mimic omnic development so closely.

It was a conundrum. Sombra sighed and leaned back onto the log she was propped up against. She had found relative comfort on a bed of moss, though it was slightly damp. The trees around her stood tall and intimidating, casting long shadows in the afternoon light. These trees were all the sort with needles rather than leaves, though there were still some shrubs around. The smell of the needles in the air was strangely soothing. Sombra could do with soothing after the morning’s ordeal. While she knew she should move more before sundown, the entire time she spent moving she wanted to be analysing her new data, and now that she had found a comfy spot she was loathe to leave. And, despite priding herself on being relatively fit for a “computer geek”, she wasn’t used to hiking all day coupled with late night races for her life.

Maybe she should have just focused on getting to Stuttgart rather than focus on this Bastion. If she got back into contact with the world she would have all the resources at her disposal to investigate it fully. But Sombra was not a patient person. She had relevant data now, a task where she was in her element. It felt good to decrypt and decipher and put all the pieces together. Even without all her hardware back at base to help her, this was still more enjoyable than hiking.

She would have to find more food soon though. She had run out of berry mush earlier in the day, a sticky residue lining her pockets all that was left. Berries alone couldn’t sustain someone for long. Sombra wondered how much worse her hunger would be if she hadn’t found that bird. Maybe she would be less exhausted given that she wouldn’t be running from Bastions in the middle of the night. That also confused her. What did the bird get out of leading her to that thing? Why had it become defensive of the unit when it shut down? Did it intend for the Bastion to kill her?

Too many unknowns. It was frustrating. But at least the readout from the system scan gave her a clearer understanding of what little she did know. She had initially thought her hack ended so quickly because of potential differences between B73s and E54s, but it was actually the omnic-like code. It had adapted and troubleshooted the hack, though it took Sombra a while to find the exact process that did it buried amongst other code. Most of it didn’t even seem to have a purpose, though that wasn’t uncommon for omnic systems. By having the personality matrix link together different functions they worked more cohesively. Sensory processing, motor functions, repairs, troubleshooting. All run by the learning unit that used emotions to sort data.

“Shit.” Sombra said aloud as she realised what she was looking at. It wasn’t just muddled pieces of omnic code, it was a functional personality matrix. That junk code wasn’t junk, it was _emotions_. The Bastion could feel, just like any other person.

“No, don’t jump to conclusions Sombra. It’s not a true omnic, it’s probably not that developed.” she reassured herself. She had partial data, that wasn’t enough to draw any conclusions. Still, the implications were massive.

Sombra rolled over onto her side and decidedly refused to not think about it. Not think about how this knowledge could affect her memories of Bastions she had encountered prior. She was going to sleep so she could get up early and get out of this horrid forest. She definitely wasn’t going to think about machine guns firing somewhere unseen, trapped in the dark, _can’t get out it’s dangerous out there but nobody else is here it’s tight and loud and dark and painful there’s blood is it hers or someone else’s-_...

No. This was the opposite of sleep. She could break out of these thoughts. Something else, something to distract her till she grew tired enough to pass out. With a groan she sat back up and brought up her holo screens again. She didn’t have any vids saved offline, she mostly streamed everything when she found time in her life to watch anything. The only reading material was mission related or recent emails she hadn’t gotten around to archiving, all boring. There was the Bastion’s scan, but she had been looking at that all afternoon and it wasn’t about to help her situation. Nothing thoroughly distracting. What she wouldn’t give for a bottle of tequila right now.

After some time crawling through long untouched folders and through half deleted files did she finally find an improperly uninstalled program connected to her translocator’s software of all things. She would have skipped past it had one word in amongst it not caught her attention. After a few minutes fiddling around she finally managed to restore it and have it running on her holo screen. The perfect distraction. Solitaire.

That night Sombra dreams were filled with suits of cards folding and shuffling, not the rapidfire of war machines.

***

There were benefits to getting up early that Sombra wasn’t able to appreciate before. She woke just as the first birds did, their song filling the darkness just before dawn. Their silhouettes stood out against the ever lightening grey of the sky. That’s how Sombra found her way to her next meal. 

By the time the sun peeked out from behind cover Sombra had a great view from high up in one of the trees. Despite her hunger she took the time to watch it rise. Until that moment she had never appreciated how beautiful and serene this place was. Gentle rays of light streaked through the air, lining the clouds with gold and piercing through rolling fog. Like a desktop wallpaper, only that much more vibrant from the feel of being there. The cold breeze was gentle enough not to cause discomfort, the birdsong filling the air as their singers flitted from tree to tree. The smell of pine that surpassed any car air freshener.

Still, she couldn’t spend all morning appreciating the view. Her stomach rumbled in agreement. Tentatively she edged out on the branch she clung to, reaching towards the nest sitting just beyond her reach. Finally she shuffled far enough to grab the eggs inside, though in order to reach them she had one foot off the tree entirely. With only one arm and one leg keeping her from falling to the ground she carefully slipped the eggs into her pocket one by one. Having taken all the eggs she began her descent, conscious of the fact that not only did she have to not fall from the tree but also avoid crushing her prize. Climbing down took far more time than climbing up, but eventually her feet were on the ground and the eggs were intact. Sombra couldn’t help grinning with self satisfaction.

Making a fire was much faster and easier now that she had her technique down. Within minutes she had a small crackling fire ready to put the eggs in. She didn’t know how long it would take to cook them, but it couldn’t be that different from boiling them. So while her breakfast sat in the flames Sombra went back to analysing the Bastion code.

Having rested and now knowing what she was looking at, it was now easier to see where original code was and personality matrix began. The latter clung on like a parasite, hooking in redirects and networking to relevant core functions. However she couldn’t read far past the connecting parts into the bulk of the matrix. It was like a jumble of ropes tied to different points, so tangled you could hardly follow the length of it without losing your place. Like it was patched over and over to fix bugs but adding more in the process. It wasn’t complex for security reasons either, it was just inefficient design.

_Crack!_

Sombra jumped as the sound instantly drew her attention. No threat in sight, but Sombra could see one of the eggs had opened and was dribbling down a burning log. Had it just cracked by itself?

_Crack!_

This time Sombra saw as another egg exploded. Before it could dribble too much she scooped it up with her fingernails, quickly to avoid burning her hand. The egg was too hot for her to hold so she dropped it on a pile of needles. Grabbing a stick she rushed to get the rest of the eggs out of the fire, pushing them to the edge so she could pick them up easily. Finally she scraped up the first egg on the stick as best as she could. She ended up with the egg shell over the end of the stick with cooked egg white dangling off and raw yolk running down and bits of dirt and charcoal mixed in. It looked absolutely disgusting but the smell…

Sombra plucked the egg off the end of the stick and poured its contents into her mouth before she could think too long about it. The solid part went first, then the slop poured in. Sombra was aware that the taste was odd and slightly unpleasant, but her body recognised it as food and made it easy to swallow.

Given that her attempts at cooking the eggs had wasted part of the first two, she decided to forego more attempts and just eat them raw. By the time she downed t  
he last egg her appetite was gone, though whether from eating food or from how gross that food was she didn’t know. Still, it was good to have something that offered more sustenance than berries.

Having finished her meal and aware of time wasting, she quickly stomped out the fire and started westward once more, ready to return to her normal life where she didn’t have to eat raw eggs.

***

Sombra was lost. This was surprising given that she had one direction in which to go. Yet here she was, knee deep in brambles and foliage with towering shrubs and boulders blocking her path. She had spent the last half hour trying to find ways around but it was almost like she got turned around each time. There wasn’t much to use in terms of landmarks, all the trees and rocks looked the same to her. It was like a maze, though unlike a manicured hedge maze this one seemed to have no solution. She had tried to climb one of the trees to get across a thick bush but had found the thing covered in thorny vines. So now she stood with a long stick in hand whacking at the shrubbery in front of her in a desperate bid to force her way through.

It was then that she heard a horrible sound. The chirping of a bird from behind her. Sombra turned to see the yellow bird sitting on a rock with its head tilted at her. One hand reached for her gun while the other gripped her stick tighter.

“You. Come to try and lead me to my death again?” Sombra asked it, though it didn’t respond, only tilted its head the other way. She tossed the stick at it and brought up the modified hack she had drafted up to take on the Bastion unit. The bird took off as the stick hurtled towards it, flying over the shrub Sombra had been hitting. Sombra was sure that it was mocking her.

Having seen the bird Sombra was sure the Bastion unit had to be close by. Self preservation and morbid curiosity fought for control until finally the latter won. She had to know what the deal was with that Bastion. She had prepared a better probe to scan the unit given its partially omnic composition, and the modified hack would help keep her safe. The only thing to do now was find the lump of gears.

Just as she started to backtrack the bird came back over the shrub and took off ahead of her. Sombra’s best bet would have to be following the bird. It seemed cheery as ever, nothing like when it had attacked her the previous day. Sombra wished she could hack the bird as well, its behaviour made less sense than the Bastion. Was it so stupid it just forgot what happened before or did it have some sort of agenda? Could birds even have agendas? Was bird psychology a thing? Regardless, Sombra was suspicious of it as she followed it on a winding path through the forest.

Finally the bird came to another shrub blocking the way West, however this one had a gap in it, broken branches seeming to indicate that something had pushed its way through. Sombra could probably fit through, though before she did she peeked through the leaves hoping to see what lay ahead. There sitting on a boulder was the Bastion unit, in recon mode. It held something in its fingers, though Sombra couldn’t quite see what it was from her angle. The bird flew into view and the Bastion turned towards it, lifting up the hand for it to land on with whatever it was holding held towards the bird. It was as the bird took it in its beak that Sombra realised it was a flower.

Of all the things Sombra had been expecting this was definitely not on that list. Its movements were careful, tender even, as it regarded its companion. And that’s what the bird was to it, maybe even a friend. The behaviour between them seemed rather friendly. Could a bird and a robot be friends? It was such a calm and sweet image that Sombra couldn’t help but doubt her plan. Not whether or not it would work, but from not wanting to disturb the moment. However that decision was taken away from her as the bird flew over to the gap in the hedge, drawing the Bastion’s attention to her as she spied on them.

Despite her newfound reservations, the fear that coursed through her drove her into action. Her heart felt like it was rising up her throat as she tumbled through the shrub, hand reaching for the translocator on instinct. The time it took to go from recon to sentry mode would buy her the time she needed to hack it. She flung the translocator over the Bastion and followed before it could hit the ground.

>execute /nerfE54

The hack was implemented before Sombra even hit the ground. She rolled as she landed, ready to run if it failed. However once she looked at it, she saw the Bastion limp, sensory screen dark. In fact, it didn’t even look like it had tried to change into turret mode. Now that she wasn’t at any risk of harm Sombra felt a pang of guilt. Not enough to stop her from running the probe she had made though.

The bird had flown over to the Bastion again and perched on its slumped head, this time leaving Sombra unpecked. The hacker was grateful for that as it allowed her to read the data from the probe in real time, though curious as to why it was calm now. Her attention went back to the holoscreen readout though as characters flashed up on it. While the in depth system scan compiled data in the background she read what was happening in the system at that very moment. Analysis was difficult given she wasn’t as familiar with the parts to do with the personality matrix, though the actual commands seemed to mostly be attempts to reconnect to motor functions. There was one part of the code that seemed linked to these attempts, repeating over and over in the readout. Given its prevalence Sombra focused on deciphering it, allowing more memory space for her rudimentary ‘translation’ program.

Three minutes later the program had a converted file in a format that used her cybernetic feedback systems. Sombra was surprised by that; while her cybernetics allowed her to output commands with efficiency, there weren’t many types of data that could be inputted into her brain itself. Before thoughts of caution could stop her impulses she ran the file.

The code that had been repeating through the Bastion incessantly had been translated to the unmistakeable feel of overwhelming fear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bit of behind the scenes for y'all. I often work on writing this fic on my phone while I'm out doing things away from my computer. While doing this I had to do some research for a particular scene. This is how I ended up chuckling youtube vids of people putting eggs in fire so they explode while on the exercise bike as other gym patrons gave me weird looks.  
> Might be a bit of a wait for the next chapter as I have run out of buffer, and also typing is hard when your galah picks keys off your keyboard.


End file.
